Mary

[JimC]

...with mint sauce...

[Brian Peacock]

What's sauce for the goose is is source for the scania.

[JimC]

...Mary, quite contrary...

[mistermack]

I don't think the virgin mary business is in the bible, if I remember rightly.
It's something the church added later.

[DaveDodo007]

I don't think the virgin mary business is in the bible, if I remember rightly.
It's something the church added later.

Yeah, didn't Jesus have three older brothers. How many fucking virgin births can you have?

[Svartalf]

older brothers by Joseph's previous wife, I guess

[Brian Peacock]

Yeah, but wasn't Jesus like white anglo while his folks were like arab? Probably adopted and they never told him. Would explain why the other boys called him names too.

[Forty Two]

Here are two propositions.

1. The 15 year old daughter of the family next door is pregnant. On questioning, she claims to be a virgin.

2. A 2000 year old book describes a girl, roughly 15 years old, who becomes pregnant. She claims to be a virgin.

Which, if either of the above propositions do you believe? Why?

Neither, because I don't care if either of them are pregnant or virginal, and whether I believe or disbelieve their assertions does not change the reality, whatever it is. And, everybody lies anyway, and everyone's memory is imperfect, and nobody has very good perception of things, and even worse, people's ability to narrate events or phenomena is woefully bad, so it's usually a safer bet to consider the possibility that whatever anyone says is to some degree incorrect.

What do you think of those people who believe either proposition?

They are rather typical people, for whom belief or disbelief is important, and who think that their "belief" in someone else's assertion has some effect or impact or matters in any way.

[Svartalf]

You must be seriouly boired, fourtwo, if you start engaging in that massive thread necromancy.

[Forty Two]

You must be seriouly boired, fourtwo, if you start engaging in that massive thread necromancy.

Indeed, and in word.

[mistermack]

The immaculate conception was actually just a massive cock-up.

[Forty Two]

The immaculate conception related to Anne's pregnancy with Mary, not Mary's pregnancy with Jesus.

[Svartalf]

actually, it's related to both, Mary could stainlessly be impregnated with Jesus because she herself was the fruit of an immaculate birth...

[rachelbean]

I don't think the virgin mary business is in the bible, if I remember rightly.
It's something the church added later.

Yeah, didn't Jesus have three older brothers. How many fucking virgin births can you have?

older brothers by Joseph's previous wife, I guess

Well it depends on who you ask. Most protestants would say that according to the gospels of Matthew and Mark, Joseph did have brothers by Mary. They would say that being married to Joseph of course Mary would go on to have more children and there is nothing about that which would tarnish Christ's or her purity.

The official Catholic position is that "brothers" is a misinterpretation. Some say the brothers were Joseph's sons, other that they weren't brothers at all but cousins or some other relation. They teach that Mary had since she was young devoted herself to God (like a nun) and that Joseph, an old widower was appointed as her guardian and could not touch her. He then had to answer to church authorities when she became pregnant of course.

One of the reasons for the big difference in theology is because the teachings that the Catholic's derive this extra information from is not in the cannon, so protestants would never look at it as valid.

Well, that doesn't really make any of it make more sense, but there's a theology lesson for you anyway

[Forty Two]

actually, it's related to both, Mary could stainlessly be impregnated with Jesus because she herself was the fruit of an immaculate birth...

The dogma goes that Mary was conceived via normal sex, but that the Holy Spirit or God rendered it immaculate. The dogma of the Incarnation deals with Mary getting pregnant without any normal insemination process.